R.I.C AKA Russell • Ian • Clarissa got married in the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay, CA this past weekend. Russell loves beer. Clarissa from Singapore speaks similar essence as I do. She is a total fan of the aromatic and fruity Moscato. Ian, their incredibly adorable 18 month old son, loves his iPad 2. After photographing their wedding in the Ritz, R.I.C to me stands not as their initials but as Romantic, Intimate and Charming. Their families and friends from Vancouver and Hawaii couldn’t agree more.

Imageries from the ocean view wedding amidst high cliffs, misty fog, cool breezes and elegant setting next to the golf courses at the Half Moon Bay’s Ritz Carlton sets the mood of the wedding. It allows one to truly understand that the venue can indeed enhance the enchanted feeling in a wedding.

I had Paul with me as my 2nd photographer and Davey as the assistant. Clarissa struggled with the cold air after the ceremony. We had to cut short the post-ceremony photoshoot. Despite that, we got a lot of amazing photographs, mostly shot within such a limited timeframe (in minutes), much thanks to the help from the staffs of the Ritz Carlton, such as Lesli Mack and our amazing Golf Cart driver, Joe. He was tying his invisible shoe laces while we photographed the scene above.

Ilona and Carl’s wedding was literally star-studded.  Both the bride and groom are actors from San Francisco.  Carl’s children also played a role in their wedding.  His son was one of the groomsmen and his daughter was a bridesmaid.  The story of this sweet newly formed family actually began when the groom decided to change careers and leave New York.

Carl used to be an officer in the NYPD but had traveled across the country seeking  jobs as an actor in California, one of which was a role as Karl Sly on the TV show Trauma, a San Francisco based drama series.  Ilona, is of Hungarian descent, but pretty much grew up in San Francisco.  Also an actor herself, she easily caught Carl’s eye on a movie set and the two started dating soon after.   Ever since meeting her, he couldn’t stop talking about Ilona, making frequent phone calls to his brother in New York to tell him about the best thing that’s ever happened to him!

So how did I get chosen to be the photographer of this wedding?  I too, met Carl on a set, but I’m sure I didn’t catch his eye the same way that Ilona did.  He was a model for a commercial shoot I was working on for a ring company.  We had a great time doing the shoot together, and well, needless to say, I caught his eye enough to be chosen as his wedding photographer.  Thank you for giving me this opportunity to be a part of your wedding!

I always thought I’m getting a little old. But standing next to possibly the oldest person in Canada, Mrs Fung, a good 112 years old, I felt like a baby, still in diapers. Born in 1899, Mrs Fung lived in 3 centuries. These family portraits that we photographed in Los Altos, California during Mrs Fung’s visit are now all over the web. They were first published by The Vancouver Sun. As for photographing a legacy of a beautiful family, multiple generations of amazing people, I only have Dr Barry Fung and his lovely wife, Dr Lien Nguyen to thank.

Just the name, Shakespeare Garden, conjures up thoughts of great love stories, and one immediately thinks of “Romeo and Juliet”. But in this particular wedding, we celebrate Bee and Eric’s love story. It’s cool that Romeo and Juliet met at the Capulet family party and all, but it’s really impressive how Bee and Eric met thousands of miles away from home, in another country! They both live in the Bay Area but happened to have made a trip around the same time, across the globe all the way to Thailand, and found each other.

Since Bee and Eric both enjoy nature, they chose to have their wedding ceremony at Shakespeare Garden in Golden Gate Park, while opting for a traditional Asian banquet reception at the Grand Palace Restaurant in South San Francisco. The two locations vary greatly in terms of the background scenery. Our job, as photographers, is to think ahead about how to work with the different locations to capture the perfect wedding pictures, no matter what the backgrounds look like.

With its natural green scenery, and tucked away in a quiet area of Golden Gate park, Shakespeare Garden offered a great backdrop for photos. It features plants and flowers mentioned in the works of William Shakespeare and is designed with many elements of an English garden including arched brick walkways, flowering trees, and old-style benches, all of which are simply beautiful for picture-taking.

Grand Palace Restaurant, shown above, like many Chinese restaurants, presented us with some challenges. The restaurant had yellow walls and harsh yellow lighting which aren’t the most attractive for pictures. However, with our experience, we were still able to capture beautiful photos by working certain angles and using our own camera lighting. That’s what great photography is about – being able to work with whatever background you have and yet creating that special moment in pictures.

Between the two locations, we captured another special photo as well against a backdrop of the city. On the way from the garden ceremony to the reception, the bride needed a restroom and so we followed her as she wandered about in her heels and wedding dress. It’s a rare sight to see a bride on a city street and so we couldn’t resist snapping shots of her and her stylish BCBG shoes. “Who knew that walking to find a restroom could look so good!” exclaimed one of the bridesmaids. The city streets can provide an interesting background but often, it can look cluttered as well. It’s all about how you take the picture, but we have to agree, the bride looked awesome rocking her dress in her BCBG’s.

Dress by David’s Bridal
Bride’s shoes by BCBG
Bridesmaid dresses by BCBG
Bouquets and flower arrangements by Nicole Ha

18 year old Reilly is leaving Atherton, California for college in Texas. Everyone is excited for him, but at the same time, sad. As fine art photographers and cinematographers, our imagery and video/cinema speaks about the family we photograph. Even more so when each family members have so much love and fun with each other.

We almost felt like close relatives, being there, absorbing the love and resonating and reflecting the TLC back into our photographs and cinema. This was photographed in the backyard of their home during our family portraiture session in Atherton, CA (next to Menlo Park and Palo Alto). Enjoy Texas, Reilly!

(Notice Georgia whispering “I love you” to Reilly when she was leaning on his shoulder? )

Well, heads as in headshots.

Recently, we had the great opportunity to meet all of the lawyers with a very large law firm, Meyers, Nave, Riback, Silver & Wilson (more affectionately referred to as Meyers Nave). The expertise of this organization was an education for me-public law. They represent airports, cities, schools, public power companies, and on it goes. As part of developing their website and printed materials, Meyers Nave wanted to have headshots of all their attorneys…and this is OUR area of expertise.

This project translated into: Have camera, light meters, reflective screens, softboxes, posing knowledge, multiple lights, power packs and backdrops-will travel. And I REALLY traveled. This firm has offices in many locations around the State of California, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Oakland, Santa Rosa, San Francisco, all of which we visited!

For the photographs we made, regardless of locations, the key requirement is to keep the look and feel consistent. Consistency is absolute in importance, in the area of branding and marketing. This meant reproducing the same backdrop and the style of head placements over a period of many months.

I’ll share a trick when photographing faces to make the subjects appear younger (less wrinkles), and avoid the reflections of light on the retinas of their eyes. If you can, take the pictures near a large light source, such as a large window that has sunlight shining indirectly in or perhaps on a cloudy day. A simple way to avoid the retinal reflections is to avoid using a small light light source (i.e. direct camera flash).

Our thanks to Meyers Nave for selecting us as their photographer. And I’ll share a little-known secret I learned through this project about lawyers…they do smile!!

— Michael Soo

View Lacee & Tejas’ Wedding Album

(click to see large image)

When we mention the word, “models”, the first thought that creeps into our heads are pictures of high fashion models that get paid in the millions, flying private jets, drinking champagne, scooping caviar with quaint mother of pearl spoons.

While putting together the 2008 Model Portfolio Photography package for Traci Halvorson Model Management in San Jose, I had an epiphany. Models have gotten the short end of the stick in this tough and competitive business. It’s a job that requires a lot of concentration, hard work, patience, the ability to laugh on-demand and hold poses for long period of time. On top of ALL that, a strong self-esteem to take rejection well and often!

Most casting calls are packed with models, at times, 10-20 of them, vying for the same job. This is especially true when there’s a big commercial gig in town. You’ll notice all the modeling agencies jumping into the fray! Nobody will get lucky everytime either. It’s definitely not the most glamorous work that is being portrayed in the movies.

In fact, in 2006, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the modeling profession in general is ranked #8 in the list of Top 10 Worst Jobs in America! Models made a median hourly wage of $11.22, a bit less than twice the minimum wage of $5.85! Most models needed a second source of income.

Being a model isn’t all about money though. It’s a business that can provide opportunities to meet a large variety of people, directors, photographers, have fun, earn a living and gain glory while you’re at it! Yes, if you are good at it, join a great agency, create an excellent portfolio and you can definitely make a really good living.

It’s really about running a business. Like every business, it requires the model to keep a constant care about the core assets of the business. In this case, themselves! Models need to take care of every aspect of their lives, their skin, look, attire, etc. to maintain a marketable image. Photo shoots can be fun but they can get tiring, long and difficult at times.

To start your work as a model, you need a professional modeling portfolio and a comp card. Contrary to popular beliefs, joining a modeling agency is FREE! Creating a viable modeling portfolio isn’t.

Modeling portfolio is the most important expenditure you will make in the business of becoming a model. It is your marketing agent and your potential meter. It gives the idea to the agency and potential clients that you have the ability to portray the characters necessary for their advertising campaign.

The comp card or zed card that you have printed as your portfolio will always be seen by an agency or client before you get seen.

Those images are your MAIN and ONLY marketing tool that you employ. You will want to impress agencies and potential clients with images that demonstrates your looks and personality. Technology companies in the neighborhood seems to have a love affair with images that has an exact match of what they are looking for. That nurse in a lab coat, for example. When they find a match, they want that model who has that ability to portray their advertising campaign.

Bear in mind that LESS is MORE. You do not win hearts or get picked just because you have more images. However, your images need to be professional, visually inspiring and most importantly, produce an eye popping WOW Factor that enhance your strength, downplay your weaknesses and showcase your personalities.

Interested? Fly us an email.

- Michael Soo

Most people I talked to would not believe me that a single photograph, cropped just slightly differently can make a person look younger or older.

Case in point, Mittie of Atherton, a beautiful 10 year old girl with hair that glows gold in sun and a with a charm that will turn the saddest frown to laughter.

Mittie’s modeling energy level easily surpass most hardened 20 year old models that I have worked with. At 10 years old, I never imagined her to work in front of my camera for 6 straight hours with few mini 10 minutes breaks in between, while I tweak the lights or change the set. And even then, she would be slipping from one set of clothings to the next. Most kids would have lost interest after an hour or two.

In the 6 hours, we shot in over 10 sets. That’s quite unheard of in this industry. Most modeling portfolio shoot of this proportion usually takes longer. One set per hour is the norm. We managed to shoot at light speed (pun intended) due to a phenomenal collaborative effort between Rex (dad), Charlene (mom) and myself.

Rex created a list of possible shotlist that would put most photographers’ comp card planning to shame. Charlene was the hair stylist and coordinator extraordinaire. She put her possible combination of clothes together before I got there.

The most important shot has to be taken care of first. It’s the headshot, shown right above. Mittie looks young, innocent and cute! Perfect headshot for Art Directors looking for young models to sell Barbie dolls, fashion wear for little girls and what not.

Now, look at this new crop from the same shoot. No lights were moved and neither was the model moved from her spot. Removing her child bearing look by cropping off the hair band, her straight styled hair, her cropped look now focuses on her eyes and lips. Her neck lengthened and somehow, her face now ages to a maturity level that matches a junior high school girl. Her ability to hold a serious look and to follow posing instructions is definitely a boon.

She has now opened her look to two different age audience and market! How can she use that to her advantage? Mittie’s comp card can now be customized like how one would customized a résumé for the specific company she applies into. Go Mittie!

- MS

Willie works mere minutes away from me in the big Apple HQ in Cupertino. This will give you a preequisite knowledge of where I shot Willie & Pattry’s rings… But that’s not what I’m going to write about.

Rather, it comes as a great pleasure to have Willie & Pattry be the first wedding clients to grace my new website, Wedding Impress. From now forth, all my clients will have their space for their friends and families to view their Engagement images, Wedding Album, provide Testimonials, etc. Ok, Ok, enough of my shameless plugs.

I do have to say that Willie is a heckavu cool guy. I had a load of fun shooting their engagement shoot at the Palace of Fine Art in San Francisco. The fun part isn’t just taking shots where every single one of the usual photographers has burrowed their tripods. Rather, the fun arises where we took numerous shots that no other photographers has ventured to take. That, in my opinion is the fun.

BTW Willie, despite protests from beautiful Pattry, I do think you look hellavu cool in your shades.

- Michael Soo